Cleanup volunteers tote bags of roadside trash.
Spring is here and along with it is Bristol’s annual recognition of the late Elmer Tarr, who walked from his house to Pemaquid Point nearly every day for many years and picked up the trash along the roadside.
Organized by the Elmer Tarr Bristol Roadside Cleanup Committee, the 2019 Elmer Tarr Roadside Cleanup Day is scheduled for Saturday, April 27, with a rain date of Saturday, May 4.
Registration is from 8-9:30 a.m. at Bristol Consolidated School, 2153 Bristol Road, Bristol. This year, cleanup will take place on Bristol Road, as well as Upper and Lower Round Pond roads.
During registration, volunteers will be assigned to a section of road, or choose their own, so that the committee can send trucks out to retrieve full bags and bring them to the transfer station. Homeowners are also invited to clean up the road alongside their own property.
The committee asks that for their own safety, volunteers should avoid picking up “anything sharp, furry, or suspicious-looking.”
Volunteers are encouraged to wear blaze-orange clothing and to bring heavy gloves and a reusable water bottle. Trash bags, safety vests, water refills, and snacks will be provided at registration. There will be a box outside the Bristol town office for returned safety vests and unused trash bags.
If volunteers are not able to participate on April 27, they are encouraged to clean up roadside litter on Earth Day, April 22, or any day that week. Trash bags will be available at the Bristol town office beginning Monday, April 15.
Assisting the cleanup committee this year, as in past years, is the Bristol Roads and Highways Department, Bristol Area Lions Club, and Bristol Maine Mason Lodge 74.
The Elmer Tarr Bristol Roadside Cleanup Committee is an initiative of Coastal Rivers Conservation Trust. Coastal Rivers is a nonprofit, membership-supported, and nationally accredited land trust and conservation organization, dedicated to preserving and promoting the natural, cultural, and historical heritage of the greater Pemaquid Peninsula and Damariscotta River region.
Coastal Rivers has active programs in the areas of land conservation, stewardship, community education, water quality monitoring, marine conservation, and cultural preservation.
Visitors are welcome at the Great Salt Bay Heritage Center in Damariscotta as well as the many other Coastal Rivers properties throughout the region. For more information, call 563-1393, email info@coastalrivers.org, or visit coastalrivers.org.
